It’s not so confusing…

If this wasn’t true why would anyone go to all the trouble and expense to push it in our faces?

Whatever is the thrust of an ad shows you what is wrong with what’s being pushed.

Advertisers use the same strategies as any abuser. They don’t hide their contempt for those they wish to control, “I love the uneducated…” Is only the surfacing of this contempt in the un-self-censored outpourings of an idiot savant of the field.

We can tell an ad from any other form of speech immediately so long as we attend to the violence of its imagery. Contempt, violence, and a rush into manufactured urgency are advertising’s unerring tells.

Once we allow ourselves to be aware of these elements plainly displayed in all manipulative speech we can free ourselves from the grasp of those who would exploit and abuse us.

At this point advertising becomes a handy heuristic:

If it’s advertised we don’t need it.

If its promoted heavily it will harm us greatly.

If we let ourselves be drawn into its pattern of abuse we remain complicit victims.